Theme Of Sacrifice In The Kite Runner

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, love like you'll never be hurt, sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.” Said a famous writer named William W. Purkey. Throughout the Kite Runner there were many mistakes that were made that each person let control their entire life. But like this quote says, you have to let those things go and continue to live your life and not let your mistakes define you. ? In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini’s repeated the use of rape, sickness, and sacrifice to represent many different things throughout the novel.

To begin, rape is an occurring motif throughout the novel to symbolize a loss of innocence, sacrifice, as well as mental and physical scarring. One of the most tragic and tear-jerking moments in the entire novel surrounds the moment when Amir decides to not help Hassan while he is getting raped. Reading this part, it is very hard not to get furious with Amir because obviously what he did was wrong but he did have reasoning behind not helping his brother. Amir stands there for a few reasons; one of the reasons being is his desire for his father approval, which he knows he can receive by coming home with the kite. When Assef says this, “I've changed my mind; I'm letting you keep the kite, Hazara. I'll let you keep it so it will always remind you of what I'm about to do.”(Hosseini 73) to Hassan, Amir still stands there and becomes the one thing that Babe always feared he would become which is a coward. As Amir stands to the side and tries to get Babas approval and while he continues to be a coward, he allows his one brother and Babas son to become a victim of rape. For years after that, Amir lives his life full of guilt and shame which ulti...

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...of the sheep and feed it a cube of sugar, before slicing its throat. I thought I saw pleading in Sohrab’s eyes.” (Hosseini 62). By the end of the novel, the sacrifice motif had been brought up a lot to Amir just in many different viewpoints. Though innocence can never be regained after it is lost, Amir still offers Sohrab help in his attempt to get his guilt to finally go away and his attempt to make up what he did to Sohrabs dad and his own brother, Hassan.

Going through all these different motifs, it taught Amir many different lessons, good and bad. But in the end, Amir finally is able to let go of his guilt and make his awful choice to not help Hassan in his time of need, have somewhat of a better outcome. In the novel The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini’s repeated the use of rape, sickness, and sacrifice to represent many different things throughout the novel.